Meta Terminates 200K SF Manhattan Office Lease Amid Broader Cutbacks

Meta, Facebook's parent company, is pulling out of its lease on Park Avenue South four years early, leaving behind a 200K SF vacancy.

Facebook signed the lease at Orda Management’s 225 Park Ave. South in 2016, but the company has exercised its option to terminate the deal, Meta confirmed to Bisnow. It is proceeding with plans to move into over 2M SF of new office space on the west side of Manhattan.

“Two twenty-five Park Avenue South has served as a great bridge space to get us to our new offices at Hudson Yards and Farley. We are working to ensure we're making focused, balanced investments to support our most strategic long-term priorities,” Meta spokesperson Jamila Reeves wrote in an email. “We remain firmly committed to New York and further anchoring our local footprint.”

The news comes as Facebook announced plans in recent days to reduce headcount, freeze hiring and run team restructures.

Facebook signed a lease for the entire 730K SF office component at the Farley Building in 2020, less than a year after it leased 1.5M SF across 30 floors in the Hudson Yards megaproject. But this year it has had a more tempered approach to office space, and in summer dropped a 300K SF expansion plan at Vornado’s 770 Broadway, per The Real Deal. It also put plans to build out its Hudson Yards space on ice in July. 

Overall, New York City had a strong third quarter of office leasing, off the back of multiple blockbuster deals — but there is a sense of uncertainty about the future of the office in a world of hybrid work.

So far, leasing volume in the city has hit 25.3M SF year-to-date, well on the way to surpass the 26M SF leased in the full year 2021, according to Savills quarterly data. Some 16 deals were signed for more than 100K SF, up from 11 in the second quarter.